Tickets & Events

Tanglewood

Reflecting the season-long theme, The Bernstein
Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood will spotlight
Bernstein's wide-ranging talents as a composer, his many gifts as a
great interpreter and champion of other composers, and his role as
an inspirer of a new generation of musicians and music lovers
across the country and around the globe. The gala concert will
feature a kaleidoscopic array of artists and ensembles from the
worlds of classical music, film, and Broadway. The entire first
half of the program is dedicated to selections from such brilliant
Bernstein works as Candide, West Side
Story, Mass, and Serenade. Music
from the classical canon very dear to Bernstein's heart-selections
from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and music by
Copland-plus a new work by John Williams, makes up a good portion
of the program's second half; the finale of Mahler's
Resurrection Symphony brings the program to a dramatic
close.

Featured Performers & Ensembles

In 2017-18, his fourth season as the BSO's Ray and Maria Stata
Music Director, Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra
in twelve wide-ranging subscription programs at Symphony Hall,
repeating three of them at New York's Carnegie Hall in March. Also
this season, in November, he and the orchestra tour Japan together
for the first time, playing concerts in Nagoya, Osaka, Kawasaki,
and Tokyo. In addition, in February 2018 Maestro Nelsons becomes
Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, in
which capacity he will bring both orchestras together for a unique
multi-dimensional alliance; under his direction, the BSO celebrates
its first "Leipzig Week in Boston" that same month. In the summer
of 2015, following his first season as music director, Andris
Nelsons' contract with the Boston Symphony Orchestra was extended
through the 2021-22 season. Following the 2015 Tanglewood season,
he and the BSO undertook a twelve-concert, eight-city tour to major
European capitals as well as the Lucerne, Salzburg, and Grafenegg
festivals. A second European tour, to eight cities in Germany,
Austria, and Luxembourg, took place in May 2016.

The fifteenth music director in the history of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons made his BSO debut at Carnegie
Hall in March 2011, his Tanglewood debut in July 2012, and his BSO
subscription series debut in January 2013. His first CD with the
BSO-live recordings of Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture and
Sibelius's Symphony No. 2-was released in November 2014 on BSO
Classics. April 2017 brought the release on BSO Classics of the
four Brahms symphonies with Maestro Nelsons conducting, recorded
live at Symphony Hall in November 2016. In an ongoing, multi-year
collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon initiated in 2014-15, he and
the BSO are making live recordings of Shostakovich's complete
symphonies, the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and other
works by the composer. The first release in this series (the
Symphony No. 10 and the Passacaglia from Lady Macbeth of
Mtsensk) won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral
Performance and Gramophone Magazine's Orchestral Award.
The second release (symphonies 5, 8, and 9, plus excerpts from
Shostakovich's 1932 incidental music to Hamlet) won the
2017 Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance. Also for Deutsche
Grammophon, Andris Nelsons is recording the Bruckner symphonies
with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Beethoven symphonies
with the Vienna Philharmonic.

In 2017-18, Andris Nelsons is artist-in-residence at the
Konzerthaus Dortmund and continues his regular collaboration with
the Vienna Philharmonic, leading that orchestra on tour to China.
He also maintains regular collaborations with the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic, the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Maestro Nelsons has also been a regular guest at the Bayreuth
Festival and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he
conducts a new David Alden production of Lohengrin this
season.

Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons
began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera
Orchestra before studying conducting. He was music director of the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2015, principal
conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany,
from 2006 to 2009, and music director of Latvian National Opera
from 2003 to 2007. Mr. Nelsons is the subject of a 2013 DVD from
Orfeo, a documentary film entitled "Andris Nelsons: Genius on
Fire."

Born in Breslau , Germany (today Wroclaw, Poland), Christoph
Eschenbach studied piano with Professor Eliza Hansen and won in his
young age numerous piano competitions. In 1965 the first prize of
the Clara Haskil competition in Luzern was the original event of
his soloist carrier. In demand worldwide by famous concert halls
and orchestras, he met George Szell who invited him to tour with
the Cleveland orchestra. In the same period Christoph Eschenbach
developped a great artistic collaboration with Herbert von Karajan
as well.

Successful conducting studies passed in Hamburg and the
influence of Szell and Karajan, the two mentors, naturally led him
to initiate his carrier as a conductor. He began in 1972, and made
his debut in the USA in 1975 with the San Francisco Symphony
Orchestra.

His grand classic repertoire is ranging from J.S. Bach to music
of our time and reflects his commitment to not just canonical works
but also to the music of the late 20th and early-21st-century.

In the field of opera, he has conducted Cosi fan tutte
at Covent Garden in 1984 and at the Houston Opera, as well as the
Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan
tutte, Der Rosenkavalier, Lohengrin,
Parsifal (staged by Robert Wilson), Salome and
Elektra, (staged by Andrei Serban), Parsifal at
the Bayreuth Festival and at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint
Petersburg. In November 2001, Arabella at the New York
Metropolitan and Don Giovanni (staged by Peter Stein) in
2004 for the 50th anniversary of the Chicago Lyric Opera. During
the 2005/2006 season, he has conducted at the Théâtre du Châtelet a
production of Wagner's Ring des Nibelung, staged by Robert
Wilson. In December 2010 he has conducted with great success
Mathis der Maler by Paul Hindemith at the Opera Paris
Bastille. More recently, he inaugurated the Mozart / Da Ponte cycle
at the Salzburg Summer Festival with Cosi fan tutte in
2013 and Don Giovanni in 2014. That same season, he has
also conducted Idomeneo at the Vienna State Opera.

Christoph Eschenbach has been the Music Director of the
Tonhalle-Gesellschaft in Zurich from 1982 to 1986, of the Houston
Symphony Orchestra from 1988 to 1999 and of the NDR Symphony
Orchestra in Hamburg from 1998 to 2004. After ten years as Music
Director of the Orchestre de Paris from September 2000 to August
2010, and four years for the Philadelphia Orchestra, from September
2003 to 2008, he became in September 2010 Music Director of the
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as the Washington
National Symphony.

To his important discography as a pianist should be added
numerous recordings at the head of the Houston Symphonic Orchestra,
the Hamburg NDR Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra
(Tchaïkovski, Mahler, Saint-Saëns, Bartok), the Orchestre de Paris
with Berlioz, Bruckner, Dusapin, Berio, Ravel, Dalbavie, Zemlinsky,
Roussel (the complete symphonies), Beethoven (the Piano Concertos
n. 1 and 4, nominated for the 2009 Grammy Awards) and the London
Philharmonic Orchestra (Bruckner, Symphony n. 6, Beethoven,
Missa Solemnis, Messiaen, Des Canyons aux
Etoiles). The Complete Symphonies by Mahler recorded with the
Orchestre de Paris is watchable in streaming on his website. His
last recording with the Washington NSO was issued for the 50th
Anniversary of the Kennedy Center. After the recent release of
Die schöne Müllerin, the Schwanengesang and the
Winterreise recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Christoph
Eschenbach and Matthias Goerne are continuing their fructuous
collaboration and regularly perform in recitals of voice and piano,
presenting the cycles of Lieder by Schubert, Brahms and
Schumann.

For Christoph Eschenbach, to transmit and to discover are
fundamental activities, this is why he regularly holds
master-classes (Manhattan School of Music, Kronberg Academy, CNSM
of Paris) and collaborates with summer academies and youth
orchestras such as the Schleswig Holstein Academy Orchestra, the
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (GMJO), the Curtis Institute...

Christoph Eschenbach has received the 2014 Grammy Award for his
recording of works by Hindemith performed with the NDR Symphony
Orchestra and the violinist Midori.

He had the honor to be named Chevalier of the French Légion
d'Honneur in January 2003, Officer of the National Order of Merit
in May 2006 and decorated with the Order of Merit of the Federal
Rebublic of Germany. He has been made French Commandeur dans
l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and has received the Leonard
Bernstein award of the Pacific Music Festival. In June 2015 he
received the Ernst von Siemens music Awards (described as the «
Nobel Price for Music ») in honour of his life 's dedication to
music.

Having celebrated his twentieth anniversary as Boston Pops
Conductor in 2015, Keith Lockhart is the second longest-tenured
conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra since its founding in 1885.
He took over as conductor in 1995, following John Williams's
thirteen-year tenure from 1980 to 1993; Mr. Williams succeeded the
legendary Arthur Fiedler, who as at the helm of the orchestra for
nearly fifty years. During his tenure, Keith Lockhart has
significantly expanded Pops programming, focused on national annual
touring, and participated in major media events. He has solidified
the orchestra's place in the fabric of the New England community
and has led the Boston Pops in countless performance situations.
The list of more than 250 guest artists with whom he has
collaborated is a virtual "who's who" of performers and pop culture
icons.

Keith Lockhart, who occupies the Julian and Eunice Cohen Boston
Pops Conductor chair, has conducted more than 1,900 Boston Pops
concerts, most of which have taken place during the orchestra's
spring and holiday seasons in Boston's historic Symphony Hall. Mr.
Lockhart has also led annual Boston Pops appearances at Tanglewood,
43 national tours to more than 150 cities in 38 states, and four
international tours to Japan and Korea. He and the Pops have made
79 television shows and participated in such high-profile sporting
events as Super Bowl XXXVI, the 2008 NBA finals, the 2013 Boston
Red Sox Ring Ceremony, and the Red Sox Opening Day game at Fenway
Park in 2009. The annual July 4 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular
draws a live audience of over half a million to the Charles River
Esplanade and millions more who view it on television or live
webcast. Last year, with Eaton Vance as presenting sponsor and
Bloomberg exclusive media partner, the Pops organization presented
its first self-produced Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular, which
was broadcast on Bloomberg Television and all its media outlets.
Both companies made initial three-year commitments to the event in
2017.

Mr. Lockhart has led eight albums on the RCA Victor/BMG Classics
label, including two-The Celtic Album and The Latin
Album-that earned Grammy nominations. Recent releases on
Boston Pops Recordings include The Red Sox Album, A
Boston Pops Christmas-Live from Symphony Hall, and The
Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers, which was
a Boston Pops commission premiered in 2010 during the orchestra's
125th season. Released at the beginning of the 2017 Pops season,
Lights, Camera…Music! Six Decades of John Williams
features Keith Lockhart leading the Boston Pops in a collection of
Williams compositions from the 1960s onward, some of which can be
considered rarities.

Programming-wise, Keith Lockhart has put an increased focus on
musical theater, attracting such leading Broadway artists as
Kristen Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Kelli O'Hara, Bernadette Peters,
and Billy Porter to the Pops stage. He has worked closely with
hundreds of talented young musicians, including Fellows of the
Tanglewood Music Center, college students from the Boston
Conservatory and Berklee College of Music, and area high school
students. He introduced the PopSearch talent competition and the
innovative JazzFest and EdgeFest series, featuring prominent jazz
and indie artists performing with the Pops. He is dedicated to
building and updating the Boston Pops library of music, which
contains over five thousand arrangements.

With a renewed commitment to bring the Boston Pops into the
Boston community and to important civic events, Keith Lockhart and
the Pops have appeared at gubernatorial and mayoral inauguration
ceremonies; the annual tree lighting in Boston's Public Garden;
sporting events including Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics
games; and the memorial service for the Boston Marathon bombing
victims. He has led free concerts in such major public spaces as
Boston Common and Franklin Park, and each holiday season brings
members of the Pops to play for patients at Children's
Hospital.

Perhaps the most significant key to Keith Lockhart's success is
his ability to connect passionately with audiences through his
engaging programs, his commitment to speaking directly from the
stage with fascinating insights into the music, and his inherent
understanding of the importance of what sets the Pops experience
apart from a traditional orchestra concert-an atmosphere of
music-making that is both fun and entertaining for music lovers of
all ages.

Having just completed an eight-year tenure as principal
conductor, Keith Lockhart is now chief guest conductor of the BBC
Concert Orchestra in London, which he led in the June 2012 Diamond
Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II; he is also artistic
director of the Brevard Music Center summer institute and festival
in North Carolina. Prior to his BBC appointment, he spent eleven
years as music director of the Utah Symphony, which he led at the
2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. He has appeared as a
guest conductor with virtually every major symphonic ensemble in
North America, as well as many prestigious orchestras in Asia and
Europe. Prior to coming to Boston, he was the associate conductor
of both the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops orchestras, as
well as music director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Born in
Poughkeepsie, NY, Keith Lockhart began his musical studies with
piano lessons at the age of seven. He holds degrees from Furman
University and Carnegie Mellon University, and honorary doctorates
from several American universities. Visit keithlockhart.com for further information.

Michael Tilson Thomas is Music Director of the San Francisco
Symphony, Founder and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony
and Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra. Born
in Los Angeles, he is the third generation of his family to follow
an artistic career. His grandparents, Boris and Bessie
Thomashefsky, were founding members of the Yiddish Theater in
America. His father, Ted Thomas, was a producer in the Mercury
Theater Company in New York before moving to Los Angeles where he
worked in films and television. His mother, Roberta Thomas, was the
head of research for Columbia Pictures.

Mr. Tilson Thomas began his formal studies at the University of
Southern California where he studied piano with John Crown and
conducting and composition with Ingolf Dahl. At age nineteen he was
named Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut
Orchestra. He worked with Stravinsky, Boulez, Stockhausen and
Copland on premieres of their compositions at Los Angeles' Monday
Evening Concerts. During this same period he was the pianist and
conductor for Gregor Piatigorsky and Jascha Heifetz.

In 1969, after winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood, he
was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
That year he also made his New York debut with the Boston Symphony
and gained international recognition after replacing Music Director
William Steinberg in mid-concert. He was later appointed Principal
Guest Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra where he remained
until 1974. He was Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic from
1971 to 1979 and a Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic from 1981 to 1985. His guest conducting includes
appearances with the major orchestras of Europe and the United
States.

His recorded repertoire of more than 120 discs includes works by
composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, Prokofiev and Stravinsky
as well as his pioneering work with the music of Charles Ives, Carl
Ruggles, Steve Reich, John Cage, Ingolf Dahl, Morton Feldman,
George Gershwin, John McLaughlin and Elvis Costello. He recently
finished recording the complete orchestral works of Gustav Mahler
with the San Francisco Symphony.

Mr. Tilson Thomas's television work includes a series with the
London Symphony Orchestra for BBC Television, the television
broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts
from 1971 to 1977 and numerous productions on PBS Great
Performances. Mr. Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony
produced a multi-tiered media project, Keeping Score, which
includes a television series, web sites, radio programs and
programs in schools.

In February 1988 he inaugurated the New World Symphony, an
orchestral academy for graduates of prestigious music programs. In
addition to their regular season in Miami Beach, they have toured
in Austria, France, Great Britain, South America, Japan, Israel,
Holland, Italy and the United States. Prior to their January, 2007
appearance at Carnegie Hall, the New World Symphony was profiled in
a feature story in The New York Times. New World Symphony graduates
have gone on to major positions in orchestras worldwide. In 1991
Mr. Tilson Thomas and the orchestra were presented in a series of
benefit concerts for UNICEF in the United States, featuring Audrey
Hepburn as narrator of From the Diary of Anne Frank, composed by
Mr. Tilson Thomas and commissioned by UNICEF. This piece has since
been translated and performed in many languages worldwide.

In August 1995 he led the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in
the premiere of his composition Showa/Shoah, commemorating the 50th
anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Thomas Hampson premiered
his settings of poetry by Walt Whitman, Renee Fleming premiered his
settings of the poetry of Emily Dickinson and the San Francisco
Symphony premiered his concerto for contrabassoon entitled Urban
Legend. As a Carnegie Hall Perspectives Artist from 2003 to 2005,
he had an evening devoted to his own compositions which included
Island Music for four marimbas and percussion, Notturno for solo
flute and strings and a new setting of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Other compositions include Street Song for brass instruments and
Agnegram, an overture for orchestra.

As Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from
1988 to 1995, Mr. Tilson Thomas led the orchestra on regular tours
in Europe, the United States and Japan as well as at the Salzburg
Festival. In London he and the orchestra have mounted major
festivals focusing on the music of Steve Reich, George Gershwin,
Johannes Brahms, Toru Takemitsu, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the
School of St. Petersburg, Claude Debussy and Gustav Mahler. As
Conductor Laureate of the LSO, he continues to lead the
orchestra in concerts in London and on tour.

His eighteen-year tenure as Music Director of the San Francisco
Symphony has been broadly covered by the international press with
feature stories in Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New
York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Times of London and The
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung among many others. With the San
Francisco Symphony he has presented eight summer festivals
including ones devoted to the music of Mahler, Stravinsky, Wagner
and American Mavericks. With the San Francisco Symphony he has made
numerous tours of Europe, United States and the Far East.

Mr. Tilson Thomas is a Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et des
Lettres of France, was Musical America's Musician of the Year and
Conductor of the Year, Gramophone Magazine's Artist of the Year and
has been profiled on CBS's 60 Minutes and ABC's Nightline. He has
won eleven Grammy Awards for his recordings. In 2008 he received
the Peabody Award for his radio series for SFS Media, The MTT
Files. In 2010, President Obama awarded him with the National Medal
of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the United States
Government.

In a career spanning five decades, John Williams has become one
of America's most accomplished and successful composers for film
and for the concert stage. He has served as music director and
laureate conductor of one of the country's treasured musical
institutions, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and he maintains thriving
artistic relationships with many of the world's great orchestras.
He remains one of our nation's most distinguished and contributive
musical voices.

Mr. Williams has composed the music and served as music director
for more than 100 films. His nearly 40-year artistic partnership
with director Steven Spielberg has resulted in many of Hollywood's
most acclaimed and successful films, including Schindler's
List, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Close
Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones
films, Lincoln, Saving Private Ryan, War Horse, The Adventures
of Tintin, Amistad, Munich, Hook, Catch Me If You Can,Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and
Empire of the Sun. Mr. Williams also composed the
scores for all six Star Wars films, the first three
Harry Potter films, Superman, JFK, Born on the Fourth
of July, Memoirs of a Geisha, Far and Away, The Accidental Tourist,
Home Alone, Nixon, The Patriot, Angela's Ashes, Seven Years in
Tibet, The Witches of Eastwick, Rosewood, Sleepers, Sabrina,
Presumed Innocent, The Cowboys, The Reivers, and Goodbye,
Mr. Chips, among many others. His most recent film project was
The Book Thief. He has worked with such legendary
directors as Alfred Hitchcock, William Wyler, and Robert Altman. He
adapted the score for the film version of Fiddler on the
Roof, for which he composed original violin cadenzas for
renowned virtuoso Isaac Stern. He has appeared on recordings as
pianist and conductor with Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Jessye
Norman, and others. Mr. Williams has received five Academy Awards
and a total of forty-nine Oscar nominations, making him the
Academy's most-nominated living person. He also has received seven
British Academy Awards (BAFTA), twenty-one Grammys, four Golden
Globes, five Emmys, and numerous gold and platinum records.

A composition student of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mr. Williams
also studied piano at the Juilliard School with Madame Rosina
Lhevinne. He began his career in the film industry working with
such accomplished composers as Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, and
Franz Waxman. He went on to write music for more than 200
television films for the groundbreaking, early anthology series
Alcoa Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre, Chrysler
Theatre, and Playhouse 90. His more recent
contributions to television music include themes for NBC
Nightly News ("The Mission"), the theme for what has become
network television's longest-running series, NBC's Meet the
Press, and the prestigious PBS arts showcase Great
Performances.

Mr. Williams has composed numerous works for the concert stage,
among them two symphonies, and concertos for flute, oboe, violin,
clarinet, viola, and tuba. His cello concerto was commissioned by
the Boston Symphony Orchestra and premiered by Yo-Yo Ma at
Tanglewood in 1994. Mr. Williams also has filled commissions by
several of the world's leading orchestras, including a bassoon
concerto for the New York Philharmonic, a trumpet concerto for the
Cleveland Orchestra, and a horn concerto for the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra. "Seven for Luck," a seven-piece song cycle for soprano
and orchestra based on texts by former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita
Dove, was premiered by the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood in 1998.
And at the opening concert of their 2009-10 season, James Levine
led the Boston Symphony in the premiere of Mr. Williams's "On
Willows and Birches," a new concerto for harp and orchestra.

In January 1980, Mr. Williams was named nineteenth conductor of
the Boston Pops Orchestra, succeeding the legendary Arthur Fiedler.
He currently holds the title of Laureate Conductor, which he
assumed following his retirement in December 1993, after fourteen
highly successful seasons. He also holds the title of
Artist-in-Residence at Tanglewood.

One of America's best-known and most distinctive artistic
voices, Mr. Williams has composed music for many important cultural
and commemorative events, including "Liberty Fanfare" for the
rededication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986, "American Journey"
for the America's Millennium concert in Washington, D.C.,
on New Year's Eve 1999, and "Soundings" for the gala opening of
Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In the world of sport, he
has contributed musical themes for the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Summer
Olympic Games, and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

Mr. Williams holds honorary degrees from twenty-one American
universities, including The Juilliard School, Boston College,
Northeastern University, Tufts University, Boston University, the
New England Conservatory of Music, the University of Massachusetts
at Boston, The Eastman School of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory of
Music, and the University of Southern California. He is a recipient
of the 2009 National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to
artists by the United States Government. In 2003 he received the
Olympic Order, the IOC's highest honor, for his contributions to
the Olympic movement. He served as the Grand Marshal of the 2004
Rose Parade in Pasadena, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center
Honor in December 2004. In January 2009, Mr. Williams composed and
arranged "Air and Simple Gifts" especially for the inaugural
ceremony of President Barack Obama.

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of
her artistry, as both a singer and an actress. The winner of a
record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and an Emmy
Award, she was named one of Time magazine's 100
most influential people of 2015 and received a 2015 National Medal
of Arts-America's highest honor for achievement in the arts-from
President Barack Obama. Blessed with a luminous soprano and an
incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling, she is as much at
home on Broadway and opera stages as she is in roles on film and
television. In addition to her theatrical work, she maintains a
major career as a concert and recording artist, regularly appearing
on the great stages of the world.

Born into a musical family, McDonald grew up in Fresno,
California, and received her classical vocal training at the
Juilliard School. A year after graduating, she won her first Tony
Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
for Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater. She
received two additional Tony Awards in the featured actress
category over the next four years for her performances in the
Broadway premieres of Terrence McNally's Master
Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998), for
an unprecedented total of three Tony Awards before the age of 30.
In 2004 she won her fourth Tony, starring alongside Sean "Diddy"
Combs in A Raisin in the Sun, and in 2012 she won her
fifth-and her first in the leading actress category-for her role
in The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess. In 2014 she made
Broadway history and became the Tony Awards' most decorated
performer when she won her sixth award for her portrayal of Billie
Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill-the
role which also served as the vehicle for her 2017 debut on
London's West End. In addition to setting the record for most
competitive wins by an actor, she also became the first person to
receive awards in all four acting categories. McDonald's other
theater credits include The Secret
Garden (1993), Marie
Christine (1999), Henry
IV (2004), 110 in the Shade (2007),
her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut
in Twelfth Night (2009), and Shuffle Along,
Or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That
Followed (2016).

McDonald made her opera debut in 2006 at Houston Grand Opera,
where she starred in a double bill: the monodrama La voix
humaine by Francis Poulenc and the world premiere
of Send by Michael John LaChiusa. She made her
Los Angeles Opera debut in 2007 starring alongside Patti LuPone in
John Doyle's production of Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of
the City of Mahagonny. The resulting recording won McDonald
two Grammy Awards, for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical
Album.

On the concert stage, McDonald has premiered music by Pulitzer
Prize-winning composer John Adams and sung with virtually every
major American orchestra-including the Boston Symphony, Chicago
Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National
Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and San
Francisco Symphony-and under such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle,
Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Leonard Slatkin. She made her Carnegie Hall
debut in 1998 with the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of
Michael Tilson Thomas in a season-opening concert that was
broadcast live on PBS. Internationally, she has sung at the BBC
Proms in London (where she was only the second American in more
than 100 years invited to appear as a guest soloist at the Last
Night of the Proms) and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, as
well as with the London Symphony Orchestra and Berlin
Philharmonic.

It was the Peabody Award-winning CBS program Having Our
Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years that introduced
McDonald to television audiences as a dramatic actress. She went on
to co-star with Kathy Bates and Victor Garber in the lauded 1999
Disney/ABC television remake of Annie, and in 2000
she had a recurring role on NBC's hit series Law &
Order: Special Victims Unit. After receiving her first Emmy
nomination for her performance in the HBO film version of the
Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit, directed by Mike
Nichols and starring Emma Thompson, McDonald returned to network
television in 2003 in the political drama Mister
Sterling, produced by Emmy Award-winner Lawrence O'Donnell,
Jr. (The West Wing) and starring Josh Brolin. In early
2006 she joined the cast of the WB's The Bedford
Diaries, and over the next season she had a recurring role on
NBC's television series Kidnapped. In 2008 she
reprised her Tony-winning role in A Raisin in the
Sun in a made-for-television movie adaption, earning her
a second Emmy Award nomination. From 2007 to 2011, she played Dr.
Naomi Bennett on the hit ABC medical drama, Private
Practice. In 2013, her critically acclaimed performance as the
Mother Abbess in NBC's live telecast of Rodgers and
Hammerstein's The Sound of Music, opposite Carrie
Underwood as Maria, was watched by an estimated 18.5 million people
across America. McDonald has performed on numerous Tony Awards
telecasts; in 2013, she closed the show by performing a rap duet
with Neil Patrick Harris.

A familiar face on PBS, McDonald has headlined telecasts including
an American Songbook season-opening concert, a presentation of
Sondheim's Passion, a Rodgers and Hammerstein tribute
concert titled Something Wonderful, and five galas
with the New York Philharmonic: a New Year's Eve performance in
2006, a concert celebrating Sondheim's 80th birthday, Carnegie
Hall's 120th anniversary concert, One Singular Sensation!
Celebrating Marvin Hamlisch, and, most
recently, Sweeney Todd. She was also featured in the
PBS television specials A Broadway Celebration: In
Performance at the White House and A
Celebration of American Creativity, singing at the request of
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. McDonald has
appeared three times on the Kennedy Center Honors; been profiled
by 60 Minutes, Today, PBS
NewsHour, and CBS Sunday Morning; been a guest
on TheLate Show with Stephen
Colbert and David
Letterman, TheTonight Show with Jimmy
Fallon, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Colbert
Report, Charlie Rose, CBS This
Morning, NewsNation with Tamron
Hall, PoliticsNation with Al
Sharpton, Iron Chef
America, The Megan Mullally Show, The Rosie
O'Donnell Show, The Tavis Smiley
Show, The Wendy Williams Show,
and The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore; and has
guest co-hosted on The View with Barbara
Walters. In 2012, McDonald was named the new official host of the
PBS series Live From Lincoln Center, and she won her
first Primetime Emmy Award for hosting the Creative Arts Special
Program in 2015, having previously been nominated in 2013. In 2016,
she received her fifth Emmy nomination for her role in HBO's film
version of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. In
2018, she joins the cast of The Good Fight for
the second season of the CBS All Access original drama series.

McDonald launched her film career with Seven
Servants in 1996; her list of credits has since grown to
include The Object of My
Affection (1998), Cradle Will Rock
(1999), It Runs in the
Family (2003), The Best Thief in the
World (2004), She Got Problems (2009) -a
mockumentary movie musical written, starring, and directed by her
sister, Alison McDonald-and Rampart (2012). She
recently appeared opposite Meryl Streep in Ricki and the
Flash (2015), and played Madame de Garderobe in Disney's
live-action Beauty and the Beast (2017). She
appears in the upcoming movie-musical Hello
Again.

As an exclusive Nonesuch recording artist, McDonald released her
most recent album, Go Back Home, in 2013. She has
released four previous solo albums on the label, interpreting songs
from the classic (Gershwin, Arlen, and Bernstein) to the
contemporary (Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guettel, and Ricky Ian
Gordon). The New York Times named her first
Nonesuch album, 1998's Way Back to Paradise, as Adult
Record of the Year. Following the bestselling How Glory
Goes in 2000 and Happy Songs in 2002,
she released the 2006 album Build a
Bridge, which saw the singer stretch her
repertoire to include songs by the likes of Randy Newman, Elvis
Costello/Burt Bacharach, Rufus Wainwright, and Nellie McKay. Her
ensemble recordings include the acclaimed EMI version of
Bernstein's Wonderful Town conducted by Sir
Simon Rattle, the New York Philharmonic release of
Sondheim's Sweeney Todd,
and Dreamgirls in concert, as well as the first
recording of Rodgers and
Hammerstein's Allegro and Broadway cast albums
of Carousel, Ragtime, Marie
Christine, 110 in the Shade, The
Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, and Lady Day at Emerson's
Bar & Grill. She is also featured on a number of
audiovisual recordings available on DVD and Blu-ray,
including Sondheim! The Birthday
Concert; Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
and Orchestra at Temple Square; Weill-Rise and Fall
of the City of Mahagonny; Bernstein-Wonderful
Town; Audra McDonald: Live at the Donmar,
London; and My Favorite Broadway: The Leading
Ladies.

McDonald's other accolades include five Drama Desk Awards, five
Outer Critics Circle Awards, four NAACP Image Awards nominations,
an Ovation Award, a Theatre World Award, the Drama League's 2000
Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre and 2012 Distinguished
Performance Award, a 2015 Rockefeller Award for Creativity, and
Roundabout Theatre's 2016 Jason Robards Award for Excellence in
Theatre. In 2015, she was named to the Time
100-Time magazine's list of the most influential
people in the world-and in 2017, honored as one of Variety
Magazine's Power of Women alongside Chelsea Clinton,
Blake Lively, and Gayle King. In 2013, she was honored
as Musical America's "Musician of the Year," joining
the esteemed company of previous winners such as Leonard Bernstein,
Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills, and Yo-Yo Ma, and in 2017 she was
inducted into Lincoln Center's Hall of Fame as a member of the
inaugural class, which included Ma, Price, Placido Domingo, Louis
Armstrong, and Harold Prince. Besides her six Tony wins, she has
received nominations for her performances in Marie
Christine and 110 in the Shade. In 2016,
McDonald received an honorary doctorate from Yale University.

In addition to her professional obligations, McDonald is a
passionate advocate for equal rights, LGBTQ causes, and
underprivileged youth. In 2014, she joined the Covenant House
International Board of Directors, which oversees programs for
homeless young people in 27 cities in six countries across the
United States, Canada, and Latin America. McDonald's outspoken
activism for marriage equality helped put the issue on the national
agenda. In 2009, she joined Twitter to promote the cause, using the
Twitter handle @AudraEqualityMc, and in 2011 she joined Mario
Batali and other pro-equality marchers in Albany to lobby New York
state senators in the days leading up their groundbreaking vote for
legalization. McDonald was featured in marriage equality and
anti-bullying campaigns for Freedom to Marry, NOH8, and PFLAG NYC.
In 2012, she and her now husband, actor Will Swenson, received
PFLAG National's Straight for Equality Award. A dog lover, she has
two canine companions, Butler and Georgia, adopted from Eleventh
Hour Rescue, a volunteer-based, non-profit organization that saves
dogs from death row. Of all her many roles, her favorites are the
ones performed offstage: passionate advocate for equal rights and
homeless youth, wife to actor Will Swenson, and mother to her
children.

Midori is a visionary artist, activist and educator whose unique
career has transcended traditional boundaries through her
relentless drive to explore and build connections between music and
the human experience. Never at rest, Midori brings the same dynamic
innovation and expressive insight that has made her a top concert
violinist to her other roles as a leading global cultural
ambassador and a dedicated music educator.

A leading concert violinist for over 30 years, Midori regularly
transfixes audiences around the world, bringing together graceful
precision and intimate expression that allows the listening public
to not just hear music but to be personally moved by it. She
has performed with the world's top orchestras including the London
Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, New York
Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Orchestre
Symphonique de Montreal, Cincinnati Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony
and Czech Philharmonic. In addition, she has collaborated with
leading musicians such as Mariss Jansons, Peter Eötvös, Christoph
Eschenbach, Daniele Gatti, Alan Gilbert, Susanna Mälkki, Kent
Nagano, Robert Spano, James Conlon, Omer Meir Wellber and Paavo
Järvi, among others.

The 2017/18 season highlights Midori's versatility with
performances of orchestral and chamber works by such composers as
Tchaikovsky, Bernstein, Hindemith, Brahms, Schubert and Enescu in
Europe, Asia, North and South America. The DVD of her
highly-acclaimed interpretation of J.S. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas
for Solo Violin was also released. In the recording, filmed at
Köthen Castle where Bach served as Kapellmeister, Midori unites her
technical and expressive mastery with her historic and emotional
insight into the composer, providing the viewer with a
multidimensional experience of Bach's music.

Midori not only brings a fresh perspective to established
standards for violin but also ceaselessly strives to expand the
repertoire, including through the creation of new works. Midori
inspired Peter Eötvös to compose the violin concerto DoReMi, which
she then recorded with Eötvös and the Orchestre Philharmonique de
Radio France. The 2016 CD joins her diverse discography that
includes sonatas by Bloch, Janáček and Shostakovich performed with
pianist Özgür Aydin, and a 2013 Grammy Award-winning recording of
Hindemith's violin concerto with Christoph Eschenbach conducting
the NDR Symphony Orchestra

In her quest to explore and expand how music is essential to
people everywhere, Midori goes beyond the concert hall and
recording studio to those areas where music access is most needed.
In 2017, Midori celebrates the 25th anniversary of the activities
of two of her non-profit organizations: Midori & Friends, which
brings high-quality music education to New York City school
children, and MUSIC SHARING, a Japan-based program that provides
access to both western classical and Japanese music traditions
through innovative events, activities, instruction and
presentations in local schools, institutions and hospitals. Her
Partners in Performance organization, founded in 2003, promotes
interest in classical music outside of major urban centers across
the United States, while her Orchestra Residencies Program, begun
in 2004, encourages young musicians to develop a life-long and
multifaceted engagement with the performing arts, helping to ensure
that the classical scene will continue vibrantly for years to
come.

Midori also brings her activism to a global level. MUSIC
SHARING's International Community Engagement Program promotes
intercultural exchange by enabling young musicians from around the
world to come together and present community performances for
audiences with limited exposure to classical music. The program's
ensembles have performed in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Laos, Mongolia,
Indonesia, Cambodia, Nepal, Vietnam and Japan, and the 2017-2018
group will head to India as well as return to Japan

Midori also regularly speaks as an expert on cultural diplomacy,
most recently at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International
Studies in Washington, D.C. She has been honored for her
international activism: in 2007, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
named Midori a Messenger of Peace, and in 2012 she received the
Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The same vision that motivates Midori's activism - discovering
and strengthening the bonds between people and music - also guides
her educational approach. From the 2018-2019 school year, she joins
the renowned violin faculty roster at the Curtis Institute of
Music, bringing her musical expertise as an active top-level
performer to her studio and her experience as an activist to the
school's community engagement programs. Prior to taking up this
position, Midori will visit Curtis to present master classes, work
with students on community building, and contribute to the school's
Artist-Citizen courses.

Until May 2018, Midori will also continue as a Distinguished
Professor of Violin and the Jascha Heifetz Chair holder at the
University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music, where
she has spent 14 years working one-on-one with her violin students.
After moving to Curtis, she will continue her involvement at USC
through a visiting artist role.

Midori is also an honorary professor at Beijing's Central
Conservatory of Music, a guest professor at both Soai University in
Osaka and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and a distinguished
visiting artist at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins
University. Her own degrees in gender studies and psychology from
New York University (BA 2000, MA 2005) strongly inform her holistic
teaching philosophy: "In our studio, the tenets of Honesty, Health,
and Dignity guide us through the times of trial, self-doubt,
self-questioning, and growth."

Midori was born in Osaka, Japan in 1971 and began her violin
studies with her mother, Setsu Goto, after displaying a strong
aptitude for music at an early age. In 1982, conductor Zubin Mehta
invited the then 11-year-old Midori to perform with the New York
Philharmonic in the orchestra's annual New Year's Eve concert. The
standing ovation that followed her debut spurred Midori to pursue a
major musical career at the highest level.

Midori plays the 1734 Guarnerius del Gesù 'ex-Huberman'. She
uses four bows - two by Dominique Peccatte, one by François
Peccatte and one by Paul Siefried.

Yo-Yo Ma's multi-faceted career is testament to his continual
search for new ways to communicate with audiences, and to his
personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. Whether performing
new or familiar works from the cello repertoire, coming together
with colleagues for chamber music or exploring cultures and musical
forms outside the Western classical tradition, Mr. Ma strives to
find connections that stimulate the imagination.

Yo-Yo Ma maintains a balance between his engagements as soloist
with orchestras throughout the world and his recital and chamber
music activities. He draws inspiration from a wide circle of
collaborators, creating programs with such artists as Emanuel Ax,
Daniel Barenboim, Kayhan Kalhor, Ton Koopman, Yu Long, Edgar Meyer,
Mark Morris, Cristina Pato, Kathryn Stott, Chris Thile, Michael
Tilson Thomas, Wu Man, Wu Tong, and Damian Woetzel. Each of these
collaborations is fueled by the artists' interactions, often
extending the boundaries of a particular genre. One of Mr. Ma's
goals is the exploration of music as a means of communication and
as a vehicle for the migration of ideas across a range of cultures
throughout the world. To that end, he has taken time to immerse
himself in subjects as diverse as native Chinese music with its
distinctive instruments and the music of the Kalahari bush people
in Africa.

Expanding upon this interest, in 1998, Mr. Ma established
Silkroad, a nonprofit organization that seeks to create meaningful
change at the intersections of the arts, education and business.
Under his artistic direction, Silkroad presents performances by the
acclaimed Silk Road Ensemble and develops new music, cultural
partnerships, education programs, and cross-disciplinary
collaborations. Silkroad's ongoing affiliation with Harvard
University has made it possible to develop programs such as the
Arts and Passion-Driven Learning Institute for educators and
teaching artists, held in collaboration with the Harvard Graduate
School of Education, and a new Cultural Entrepreneurship initiative
in partnership with Harvard Business School. More than 80 new
musical and multimedia works have been commissioned for the Silk
Road Ensemble from composers and arrangers around the world.

Through his work with Silkroad, as throughout his career, Yo-Yo
Ma seeks to expand the cello repertoire, frequently performing
lesser known music of the 20th century and commissions of new
concertos and recital pieces. He has premiered works by a diverse
group of composers, among them Elliott Carter, Richard Danielpour,
Osvaldo Golijov, Leon Kirchner, Zhao Lin, Christopher Rouse,
Giovanni Sollima, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, John Williams and Dmitri
Yanov-Yanovsky. In February of 2017 he will premiere a new concerto
by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

As the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Judson and Joyce Green
Creative Consultant, Mr. Ma is partnering with Maestro Riccardo
Muti to provide collaborative musical leadership and guidance on
innovative program development for The Negaunee Music Institute of
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and for Chicago Symphony artistic
initiatives. Ma's work focuses on the transformative power music
can have in individuals' lives, and on increasing the number and
variety of opportunities audiences have to experience music in
their communities. In March 2016, he was appointed Artistic Advisor
at Large to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as
part of their expansive initiatives honoring the centenary of JFK's
birth and to encourage the idea of creative citizenship.

Yo-Yo Ma is strongly committed to educational programs that not
only bring young audiences into contact with music but also allow
them to participate in its creation. While touring, he takes time
whenever possible to conduct master classes as well as more
informal programs for students - musicians and non-musicians alike.
At the same time, he continues to develop new concert programs for
family audiences, for instance helping to inaugurate the family
series at Carnegie Hall. In each of these undertakings, he works to
connect music to students' daily surroundings and activities with
the goal of making music and creativity a vital part of children's
lives from an early age. He has also reached young audiences
through appearances on "Arthur," "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and
"Sesame Street."

Mr. Ma's discography of over 100 albums (including 18 Grammy
Award winners) reflects his wide-ranging interests. He has made
several successful recordings that defy categorization, among them
"Appalachia Waltz" and "Appalachian Journey" with Mark O'Connor and
Edgar Meyer, and two Grammy-winning tributes to the music of
Brazil, "Obrigado Brazil" and "Obrigado Brazil - Live in Concert."
Mr. Ma's recent recordings include: "The Goat Rodeo Sessions," with
Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile and Stuart Duncan, which received the 2013
Grammy for Best Folk Album, and "Songs from the Arc of Life," with
pianist Kathryn Stott. His most recent release, "Sing Me Home,"
recorded with the Silk Road Ensemble, was released in April 2016 as
the companion album to documentary film The Music of Strangers.
Created by Oscar-winning producer Morgan Neville, the film follows
the Ensemble's more than 50 musicians, composers, visual artists
and storytellers as they explore the ways art can both preserve
traditions and shape cultural evolution. In spring 2017, Mr. Ma
will release and tour "Bach Trios," recorded with Edgar Meyer and
Chris Thile. Mr. Ma remains one of the best-selling recording
artists in the classical field. All of his recent albums have
quickly entered the Billboard chart of classical best sellers,
remaining in the Top 15 for extended periods, often with as many as
four titles simultaneously on the list.

Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He
began to study the cello with his father at age four and soon came
with his family to New York, where he spent most of his formative
years. Later, his principal teacher was Leonard Rose at the
Juilliard School. He sought out a traditional liberal arts
education to expand upon his conservatory training, graduating from
Harvard University in 1976. He has received numerous awards,
including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the Glenn Gould Prize
(1999), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Dan David Prize
(2006), the Leonie Sonning Music Prize (2006), the World Economic
Forum's Crystal Award (2008), the Presidential Medal of Freedom
(2010), the Polar Music Prize (2012) and the Vilcek Prize in
Contemporary Music (2013). In 2011, Mr. Ma was recognized as a
Kennedy Center Honoree. Appointed a CultureConnect Ambassador by
the United States Department of State in 2002, Mr. Ma has met with,
trained and mentored thousands of students worldwide in countries
including Lithuania, Korea, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and China. He also
serves as a UN Messenger of Peace. He has performed for eight
American presidents, most recently at the invitation of President
Obama on the occasion of the 56th Inaugural Ceremony.

Mr. Ma and his wife have two children. He plays two instruments,
a 1733 Montagnana cello from Venice and the 1712 Davidoff
Stradivarius.

Rave reviews and invitations to perform at the world's leading
concert halls have propelled the 25-year-old musician from rising
star to one of the most exciting musicians of this generation.

Kian Soltani made his international breakthrough at the age of
nineteen with acclaimed debuts in the Vienna Musikverein's Goldener
Saal and at the Hohenems Schubertiade. He attracted further
worldwide attention in April 2013 as winner of the International
Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki where he was hailed by Ostinato
magazine as "a soloist of the highest level among the new
generation of cellists".

In the summer of 2015 he joined Daniel Barenboim as one of the
soloists in Beethoven's Triple Concerto, performing the work during
the West Eastern Divan Orchestra's Waldbühnenkonzert in Berlin, at
the Salzburg and Lucerne festivals, at the BBC Proms in London, and
at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

Highlights of the 2017/18 season include performances at the
Alte Oper Frankfurt, Philharmonie de Paris, Royal Festival Hall
London, Kölner Philharmonie, Boulez Saal Berlin,
Prinzregententheater Munich, Oslo Konserthus and the Hohenems
Schubertiade, as well as appearances at the Salzburg, Verbier,
Lucerne and Aix-en- Provence Easter Festivals. He will again join
Barenboim and the West Eastern Divan Orchestra performing Strauss'
Don Quixote on a worldwide tour throughout 2017. His debut Deutsche
Grammophon album, "Home", comprising works for cello and piano by
Schubert, Schumann and Reza Vali, is set for international release
in January 2018.

Kian Soltani was born in Bregenz in 1992 to a family of Persian
musicians. He began playing cello at an age four and was only
twelve when he joined Ivan Monighetti's class at the Basel Music
Academy. He was chosen as an Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation
scholarship holder in 2014, and completed his further studies as a
member of the Young Soloist Programme at Germany's Kronberg
Academy. He received additional important musical training at the
International Music Academy in Liechtenstein.

Kian Soltani plays on the "London" Stradivarius 1694 cello, on
generous loan from the J & A Beare International Violin
Society.

Praised for her vocal beauty, seamless technique, and abundant
musicality, Nadine Sierra is being hailed as one of the most
promising, young talents in opera today. She was named the Richard
Tucker Award Winner in 2017 and was awarded the 2018 Beverly Sills
Artist Award by the Metropolitan Opera. Having made a string of
successful debuts at the Met, Teatro alla Scala, Opéra national de
Paris, and Staatsoper Berlin, she has become a fixture at many of
the top houses around the world. On August 24th, 2018, her debut
album, There's a Place for Us, will be released under
the Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music labels.

For the 2018-19 season, Sierra will return both to the
Staatsoper Berlin singing Nannetta in Falstaff and to the
Metropolitan Opera as Gilda in Rigoletto. She will also
make her house and role debut as Manon at the Opéra national de
Bordeaux and perform again as Gilda in a new production at the
Staatsoper Berlin under the baton of Daniel Barenboim. In concert,
she will perform and record Maria in Bernstein's West Side
Story with Antonio Pappano at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa
Cecilia, appear in Dallas, Prague, Paris, Bordeaux, Baden-Baden and
return to Venice for La Fenice's televised Capodanno
celebration.

Ms. Sierra's 2017-18 season included appearances at the Opéra
national de Paris, the Metropolitan Opera, La Fenice, Chorégies
d'Orange, and Staatsoper Berlin. She was named the Richard Tucker
Award Winner in 2017 and had the honor of receiving the 2018
Beverly Sills Artist Award from the Metropolitan Opera. Sierra also
had the pleasure of releasing her debut album, 'There's a Place for
Us,' with the Deutsche Grammophon and Universal Music on August
24th, 2018. Ask her your questions on Instagram:
@nadine.sierra.

Susan Graham - hailed as "an artist to treasure" by
the New York Times - rose to the highest
echelon of international performers within just a few years of her
professional debut, mastering an astonishing range of repertoire
and genres along the way. Her operatic roles span four centuries,
from Monteverdi's Poppea to Sister Helen Prejean in Jake
Heggie's Dead Man Walking, which was written
especially for her. She won a Grammy Award for her collection of
Ives songs, and her recital repertoire is so broad that 14
composers from Purcell to Sondheim are represented on her most
recent Onyx album, Virgins, Vixens & Viragos.
This distinctly American artist has also been recognized throughout
her career as one of the foremost exponents of French vocal music.
Although a native of Texas, she was awarded the French government's
prestigious "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur," both for her
popularity as a performer in France and in honor of her commitment
to French music.

To launch the 2017-18 season, Ms. Graham will reprise her star
turn in the title role of Susan Stroman's production of
Lehár's The Merry Widow at the MET, then she
joins Nathan Gunn for Bernstein's Trouble in
Tahiti at Lyric Opera of Chicago, in a special concert to
mark the composer's 100th birthday. To conclude the operatic
season, she returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis opposite James
Morris in Marc Blitzstein's 1948 opera Regina. At the
Boston Symphony, she joins Charles Dutoit for Berlioz's La
Damnation de Faust and Andris Nelsons for Mahler's Third
Symphony, which is also the vehicle for her summer collaborations
at the Tanglewood Festival and later on tour in Europe. Besides
reuniting with Dutoit for Ravel's Shéhérazade at
the San Francisco Symphony, she headlines a gala concert to
celebrate Tulsa Opera's 70th anniversary. She also gives solo
recitals at Emory University and Washington University, and rounds
out the season with a night of cabaret at the Park Avenue Armory in
New York.

Last season, Graham partnered with Renée Fleming for the San
Francisco Symphony's opening-night gala, and joined Anna Netrebko,
Plácido Domingo, and a host of other stars to celebrate the
Metropolitan Opera's five decades at Lincoln Center. Having created
the role of Sister Helen Prejean in the world premiere production
of Dead Man Walking at San Francisco Opera, she
reprised her role in Washington National Opera's revival of the
piece. She returned to Santa Fe Opera as Prince Orlofsky in a new
production of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus, and
reprised her signature portrayal of Dido in Berlioz's Les
Troyens at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Concert highlights
included selections from Mahler's Des Knaben
Wunderhornat Carnegie Hall and Canteloube's Chants
d'Auvergne with the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as a
star-studded Der Rosenkavalier at the Boston
Symphony. She gave U.S. recitals of "Frauenliebe und -leben
Variations," her program inspired by the Schumann song cycle, and
expanded her discography with Nonesuch Records' DVD/Blu-ray release
of William Kentridge's new treatment of Berg's Lulu,
which captured her role debut as Countess Geschwitz at the Met.

Graham's earliest operatic successes were in such trouser roles
as Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozzedi
Figaro. Her technical expertise soon brought mastery of
Mozart's more virtuosic roles, like Sesto in La clemenza
di Tito, Idamante in Idomeneo and Cecilio
in Lucio Silla, as well as the title roles of
Handel's Ariodante and Xerxes. She
went on to triumph in two iconic Richard Strauss mezzo roles,
Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and the Composer
in Ariadne auf Naxos. These brought her to prominence
on all the world's major opera stages, including the Met, Lyric
Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Covent Garden, Paris Opera,
La Scala, Bavarian State Opera, Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg
Festival, among many others. She performed the leading ladies in
the MET world premieres of John Harbison's The Great
Gatsby and Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy,
and made her Dallas Opera debut as Tina in a new production
of The Aspern Papers by Dominick Argento. As
Houston Grand Opera's Lynn Wyatt Great Artist, she starred as
Prince Orlofsky in the company's first staging of Die
Fledermaus in 30 years, before heading an all-star cast
as Sycorax in the Met's Baroque pastiche The Enchanted
Island and making her rapturously received musical theater
debut in a new production of Rodgers &
Hammerstein's The King and I at the Théâtre du
Châtelet in Paris.

It was in an early Lyon production of
Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict that Graham
scored particular raves from the international press, and a triumph
in the title role of Massenet's Chérubin at Covent
Garden sealed her operatic stardom. Further invitations to
collaborate on French music were forthcoming from many preeminent
conductors, including Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, James Levine
and Seiji Ozawa. New productions of Gluck's Iphigénie en
Tauride, Berlioz's La damnation de Faust and
Massenet's Werther were mounted for the mezzo in New
York, London, Paris, Chicago, San Francisco and beyond. She
recently made title role debuts in Offenbach's comic
masterpieces La belle Hélène and The
Grand Duchess of Gerolstein at Santa Fe Opera, as well as
proving herself the standout star of the Met's star-studded revival
of Les Troyens, which was broadcast live to
cinema audiences worldwide in the company's celebrated "Live in HD"
series. Graham's affinity for French repertoire has not been
limited to the opera stage, having also served as the foundation
for her extensive concert and recital career. Such great cantatas
and symphonic song cycles as Berlioz's La mort de
Cléopâtreand Lesnuits d'été,
Ravel's Shéhérazade and
Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer provide
opportunities for collaborations with the world's leading
orchestras, and she makes regular appearances with the New York
Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Orchestre de Paris and London
Symphony Orchestra.

Graham's distinguished discography features all the works
described above, as well as a series of lauded solo albums,
including Un frisson français, a program of French
song recorded with pianist Malcolm Martineau for
Onyx; C'est ça la vie, c'est ça l'amour!, an album of
20th-century operetta rarities on Erato; and La Belle
Époque, an award-winning collection of songs by Reynaldo Hahn
with pianist Roger Vignoles, from Sony Classical. Among the mezzo's
numerous honors are Musical America's Vocalist of the
Year and an Opera News
Award; Gramophone magazine has dubbed her
"America's favorite mezzo."

Highly acclaimed for her "passionate intensity and remarkable
vocal beauty," the Grammy Award winning Isabel Leonard continues to
thrill audiences both in the opera house and on the concert
stage. In repertoire that spans from Vivaldi to Mozart to
Thomas Ades, she has graced the stages of the Metropolitan Opera,
Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Salzburg Festival, Bavarian State
Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco
Opera as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Angelina
in La Cenerentola, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro,
Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Blanche de la Force
in Dialogues des Carmélites, the title roles
in Griselda, La Périchole, and Der Rosenkavalier, as
well as Sesto in both Mozart's La clemenza di Tito and
Handel's Giulio Cesare.

She has appeared with some of the foremost conductors of her
time: James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Gustavo
Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Franz Welser-Möst, Edo de Waart, James
Conlon, Andris Nelsons, and Harry Bicket with the Cleveland
Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los
Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Vienna Philharmonic,
among others.

Ms. Leonard is in constant demand as a recitalist and is on the
Board of Trustees at Carnegie Hall. She is a recent Grammy
Award winner for Thomas Ades' The Tempest (Best Opera
Recording) and the recipient of the 2013 Richard Tucker
Award. She recently joined the supporters of the Prostate
Cancer Foundation to lend her voice in honor of her father who died
from the disease when she was in college.

Thomas Hampson, America's foremost baritone, hails from Spokane,
Washington. He has received many honors and awards for his probing
artistry and cultural leadership. Comprising more than 150 albums,
his discography includes winners of a Grammy Award, five Edison
Awards, and the Grand Prix du Disque. He received the 2009
Distinguished Artistic Leadership Award from the Atlantic Council
in Washington, D.C., and was appointed the New York Philharmonic's
first Artist-in-Residence. In 2010 he was honored with a Living
Legend Award by the Library of Congress, where he serves as Special
Advisor to the Study and Performance of Music in America. Hampson
was made honorary professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the
University of Heidelberg and holds honorary doctorates from
Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, Whitworth
College, and San Francisco Conservatory, as well as being an
honorary member of London's Royal Academy of Music. He carries the
titles of Kammersängerof the Vienna State Opera
and Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des
Lettres of the Republic of France, and was awarded the
Austrian Medal of Honor in Arts and Sciences.

Thomas Hampson enjoys a singular international career as an
opera singer, recording artist, and "ambassador of song,"
maintaining an active interest in research, education, musical
outreach, and technology. Hampson who was recently inducted
into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has won worldwide
recognition for thoughtfully researched and creatively constructed
programs as well as recordings that explore the rich repertoire of
song in a wide range of styles, languages, and periods. Through the
Hampsong Foundation which he founded in 2003 he employs the art of
song to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding.

Born in Riverside, CA, Tony Yazbeck moved to Bethlehem, PA at
age 4, when he first saw Fred Astaire dance on a black and white TV
screen. Tony danced around the living room, pretending he was
Mr. Astaire, so his mom and dad put him in dance class right
away.

At age 11, he auditioned to be a replacement "Newsboy" in the
Tyne Daly Gypsy, directed by Arthur Laurents. For the
next two years, his mother drove him two hours in each direction,
six days a week, from Bethlehem, PA to the stage door of The St.
James Theater.

A year after closing Gypsy, at age 14, his family moved to
The Poconos, where Tony worked on a farm to make extra money.
He moved to Orlando at age 16, where he studied at Dr. Phillips
Performing Arts High School.

He attended Point Park University in Pittsburgh for two years,
working at Disney his first summer and in the ensemble at the PCLO
his second. He then transferred to Cincinnati Conservatory of
Music for his third year of college. In April of 2000, he was
cast in the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun.

In 2001, Tony made the dream of being a true New Yorker a
reality, when the tour closed and he officially moved to the
city. Various Broadway/Off-Broadway/Encores!/Regional
Theatre/Television/National Tours/London Concerts have subsequently
ensued, culminating most recently in a Tony Award
Nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for
his turn as "Gabey" in the Broadway revival of On The
Town.

Tony is exceedingly passionate about directing, choreographing
and writing in new and creative ways for stage and TV. The
first incarnation of these efforts is his solo show The Floor
Above Me. Tony is also a devoted teacher, most frequently at
the National YoungArts Foundation, where he is a master teacher,
panelist and assistant director to the legendary Bill T. Jones.

The most important achievement of his life-to-date, however,
happened in October 2014, when, right after opening in the
aforementioned revival of On The Town, Tony married the love
of his life, actress, dancer, singer, choreographer and budding
director Katie Huff.

Los Angeles based director and designer James
Darrah's collaborative focus through varied mediums has quickly led
him to be recognized as "the newest discovery... a gifted young
American director" (Chicago Tribune). He has crafted an
unconventional and varied body of work that "injects real drama"
(New York Times) into new theater and opera productions,
installations, and events that become "once-in-a-lifetime
experience[s]" (Opera News).

Darrah's recent projects include a return to an
annual residency with Opera Omaha, where he launched a production
of Handel's Semele in a co-production with Opera Philadelphia; his
European directorial debut with Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in
Lisbon, Portugal for new production of Gluck's Iphigénie en
Tauride; and an installment of San Francisco Symphony's
trailblazing SOUNDBOX series. In January 2017, he continues his
ongoing collaboration with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas as
director of Mahler's Das Klagende Lied in a new staged production
for San Francisco Symphony. Other recent projects include a debut
at Bard Summerscape with a new production of Mascagni's Iris and
the acclaimed world premiere of Missy Mazzoli's operatic adaptation
of Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves for Opera Philadelphia and
the Prototype Festival. Darrah also recently collaborated with
LA-based dance group WIFE for the first two installments of his
three year Pelleas Project based on Maeterlinck's play Pelléas et
Mélisande with Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
In 2017, he will direct the Debussy opera in the final installment
of the project as part of the grand re-opening of Cincinnati's
Music Hall in a new production, conducted by Langrée, in
collaboration with Cincinnati Opera.

In 2018, Darrah will assume the role of artistic
director for a new annual spring festival and artists' residency as
part of his ongoing collaboration with Opera Omaha and direct the
world premiere of newly commissioned opera Proving Up by Missy
Mazzoli in a co-commission with Washington National Opera, Opera
Omaha, and the Miller Theater.

Other past projects include a highly acclaimed Peter
Grimes with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas,
the world premiere production of Frank Zappa's infamous 200 Motels
with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen, a new Don
Giovanni for the San Francisco Merola Opera Program, and his
Lincoln Center directing debut with Handel's Radamisto for The
Juilliard School, where he returned for a new production of
Jonathan Dove's Flight in Fall 2016. Darrah has also realized
projects in collaboration with Opera San Antonio, Theater@Boston
Court, the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, SCA Gallery, The Broad
Stage in Santa Monica, Chicago Opera Theater, and the Croatian
National Theater.

Darrah holds an MFA from the UCLA School of Theater,
Film, and Television, where he was the recipient of the James
Pendelton Foundation Grant and the George Burns/Gracie Allen
Directing Scholarship. He continued his studies with director
Stephen Wadsworth at The Juilliard School. He has received the
national Princess Grace Award in Theater, was a directing nominee
in the 2015 International Opera Awards, and was named Musical
America's New Artist of the Monthfor December 2015. He has taught
theater and performance for the Adler Fellowship Program of San
Francisco Opera, Cornish College of the Arts, California State
University, Long Beach and the University of California, Los
Angeles.

James Darrah is a member of United Scenic Artists,
Local 829, and AGMA and is represented by Opus 3
Artists (General Management) and IMG Artists
(Europe).

This season at Symphony Hall, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus
joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra for performances of Mahler's
Symphony No. 3 (January 18-20) and
Schumann's Nachtlied and Neujahrslied (February
8-10) under BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons; Grieg's incidental
music to Peer Gynt under BSO Associate Conductor
Ken-David Masur (October 19-24); Berlioz's The Damnation
of Faust (October 26-28) and Ravel's
complete Daphnis et Chloé (February
15-17) under Charles Dutoit, and Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No.
3, Kaddish, under Giancarlo Guerrero (March 15-17).
Members of the chorus also participated in this season's
all-Bernstein program on Opening Night. Originally formed under the
joint sponsorship of Boston University and the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, the all-volunteer Tanglewood Festival Chorus was
established in 1970 by its founding conductor John Oliver, who
stepped down from his leadership position with the TFC at the end
of the 2014 Tanglewood season. Awarded the Tanglewood Medal by the
BSO to honor his forty-five years of service to the ensemble, Mr.
Oliver now holds the lifetime title of Founder and Conductor
Laureate and occupies the Donald and Laurie Peck Master Teacher
Chair at the Tanglewood Music Center. In February 2017, having
prepared the chorus for that month's BSO performances of Bach's B
minor Mass led by Andris Nelsons, the British-born James Burton was
named the new Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, also
being appointed to the newly created position of BSO Choral
Director.

Though first established for performances at the BSO's summer
home, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus was soon playing a major role
in the BSO's subscription season as well as BSO concerts at
Carnegie Hall. Now numbering more than 300 members, the ensemble
performs year-round with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops. It
has performed with Seiji Ozawa and the BSO in Hong Kong and Japan,
and with the BSO in Europe under James Levine and Bernard Haitink,
also giving a cappella concerts of its own on
the two latter occasions. The TFC made its debut in April 1970, in
a BSO performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Leonard
Bernstein conducting. Its first recording with the orchestra,
Berlioz's La Damnation of Faust with Seiji
Ozawa, received a Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance of
1975. The TFC has since made dozens of recordings with the BSO and
Boston Pops, with James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Sir
Colin Davis, Leonard Bernstein, Keith Lockhart, and John Williams.
In August 2011, with John Oliver conducting and soloist Stephanie
Blythe, the TFC gave the world premiere of Alan Smith's An
Unknown Sphere for mezzo-soprano and chorus,
commissioned by the BSO for the ensemble's 40th anniversary. Its
most recent recordings on BSO Classics, all drawn from live
performances, include a disc of a cappella
music led by John Oliver and released to mark the TFC's 40th
anniversary; and, with James Levine conducting, Ravel's
complete Daphnis and Chloé (a 2009
Grammy-winner for Best Orchestral Performance),
Brahms's German Requiem, and William Bolcom's Eighth
Symphony for chorus and orchestra (a BSO 125th Anniversary
Commission). Besides their work with the BSO, TFC members have
performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Zubin Mehta and the
Israel Philharmonic; participated in a Saito Kinen Festival
production of Britten's Peter Grimes under
Seiji Ozawa in Japan, and sang Verdi's Requiem with Charles Dutoit
to help close a month-long International Choral Festival given in
and around Toronto. The ensemble had the honor of singing at Sen.
Edward Kennedy's funeral; has performed with the Boston Pops for
the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics; and can be heard on the
soundtracks of Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, John
Sayles's Silver City, and Steven
Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. TFC members
regularly commute from the greater Boston area, western
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont,
and Maine, and TFC alumni frequently return each summer from as far
away as Florida and California to sing with the chorus at
Tanglewood. Throughout its history, the TFC has established itself
as a favorite of conductors, soloists, critics, and audiences
alike.

James Burton was appointed Conductor of the Tanglewood Festival
Chorus, and to the new position of BSO Choral Director, in February
2017. Born in London, Mr. Burton began his training at the Choir of
Westminster Abbey, where he became head chorister. He was a choral
scholar at St. John's College, Cambridge, and holds a master's
degree in orchestral conducting from the Peabody Conservatory,
where he studied with Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier. He has
conducted concerts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hallé, the Orchestra of
Scottish Opera, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, and
Manchester Camerata; in early 2016 he made his debut with the
Orquestra Sinfònica Nacional with concerts in the Palacio de Bellas
Artes in Mexico City. Opera credits include Don Giovanni
and La bohème at English National Opera, Così fan
tutte at English Touring Opera, The Magic Flute at
Garsington, and Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica
at the Prague Summer Nights Festival. He has served on the music
staff of the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra de Paris, English National
Opera, Opera Rara, and Garsington Opera, where he was honored with
the Leonard Ingrams Award in 2008. He has also conducted in
London's West End and led a UK tour of Bernstein's Wonderful
Town in 2012. His extensive choral conducting has included
guest invitations with professional choirs including the Gabrieli
Consort, the Choir of the Enlightenment, Wrocław Philharmonic, and
the BBC Singers, with whom he performed at the Dubai Opera house in
its inaugural season earlier this year. From 2002 to 2009 he served
as choral director at the Hallé Orchestra, where he was music
director of the Hallé Choir and founding conductor of the Hallé
Youth Choir, winning the Gramophone Choral Award in 2009.
He returned to Manchester in 2014, preparing the choirs for a
Grammy-nominated recording under Sir Mark Elder of Vaughan
Williams's Sea Symphony. From 2002 to 2017 he was music
director of the chamber choir Schola Cantorum of Oxford, touring
all over the world and recording with Hyperion Records. He
collaborates regularly with leading young musicians and in 2017
appeared as guest director of the National Youth Choir of Japan and
the Princeton University Glee Club, as well as the Genesis Sixteen.
He teaches conducting, and has given master classes at the Royal
Academy of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music. In 2011 he
founded a conducting scholarship with Schola Cantorum of Oxford.
His compositions and arrangements have been performed
internationally, and his orchestral arrangements for Arlo Guthrie
have been performed by the Boston Pops, by many other leading U.S.
orchestras, and at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. His
commissions have included the music for the 2010 World Equestrian
Games opening ceremony, a setting for chorus and orchestra of
Thomas Hardy's The Convergence of the Twain commemorating
the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, and a recent
Christmas carol premiered by the Choir of St. John's College,
Cambridge, live on BBC Radio 3. His choral works are published by
Edition Peters. As BSO Choral Director and Conductor of the
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton occupies the Alan J. and
Suzanne W. Dworsky Chair, endowed in perpetuity.

*Joined by members of the New York
Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic
Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Pacific Music
Festival, and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.